


Something Four

by joouheika



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Manga Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 05:57:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2640638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joouheika/pseuds/joouheika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren looks through his mother's hope chest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Four

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mimimi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mimimi/gifts).



> my friend mimi who is drawing wedding rivaere to make me cry

The revolution is a success.

Historia is crowned Queen and under the guidance of the newly purged and revised Military Police, Garrison, and Survey Corps, they take back Wall Maria. The people are informed and appeased, and a different era is what they’re on the verge of. Soon they think, they will go beyond the walls and kill the rest of the titans, but first they must see what it is Dr Grisha Yeager had left for his son.

The key doesn’t matter, after they move all the rubble of his old home they find the door smashed in. The Survey Corps investigate what is below and they find, large and deep, a cavity like that of the Reiss family’s church, crystal walls and winding tunnels. What books and paper, vials and concoctions, old equipment and furniture that’s down there has either been pilfered through or destroyed. Someone had gotten there before them and so there isn’t really anything to make of what Hanji and her remaining squad finds.

It’s disappointing but they had also gone through what else they had found in his destroyed home.

Eren skims his fingers over the carved mahogany, the design of many flowers and creatures bold or small from the deep woods and unknown world beyond- animals he’d only seen in Armin’s picture books, deeply engraved into the dark and amber wood. It is the lid to his mother’s hope chest. He sits before it upon his knees. He doesn’t know much about her he reflects, his father being a doctor she had come from an almost established family… one that had had either money or prestige. Even so, she had eloped with his father, being of respectable profession and wealth did not always make up for bloodties but they never really spoke of that.

What else he had known of her- she prided herself on what cooking she could do, and took great care on cleaning and patching up their clothes, the house always needed to be tidy (not Corporal’s severe level of “tidy”) and prepared for the season- and she loved flowers. 

Flowers are painted along the sides of the hope chest as well, dark and vibrant colours intertwine with all sorts of blooming petals, lush vines and leaves. He must have gotten it from her, this love of flowers. She loved to have fresh flowers adorn their home and had grown some by the eaves of the windows.

He glances over to the vase of flowers he keeps in his room- a room he’d been assigned to sleep in, an actual room, not a cell in the dungeons- in the Survey Corps’ newer and more lavish head quarters. The flowers that’d first been in that vase there had been red carnations given to him by Corporal Levi in congratulations for being granted his own quarters and he liked this sort of crap didn’t he, and a couple other times- this bunch of blue morning glories and baby blue eyes as well- that are currently present- were given on account Levi had gone out into town a couple days ago and figured Eren might like some more. Eren typically dries the flowers out, like his mother had to flowers his father had given her and depending on the flower- used it accordingly for baking, tea, or potpourri.

Their HQ is larger than before but most of their important personal hang out in the capitol now and so HQ isn’t very busy as it had been with the lot of them back when he’d first started.

Many of them have been allowed to go out beyond the walls; a strange occurrence had come to pass after they retook Wall Maria- for miles upon miles- the titans had disappeared. The people cried it was the will of the goddesses, now that the correct royal family had been established… others mused it was the dead of the many soldiers they’d sent that’d killed them… that Wall Maria being retaken had done something incomprehensible and scared them away… theories and speculation upon the other. Eren had wanted to go outside with everyone else, but ironically it was agreed by the higher-ups that him “being” a titan it was not to be permitted until the situation was clearly attested to. Besides they’d allowed him out to Wall Maria to defeat titans, and as that is what he did- if there are no more titans for him to fight, to kill then…

That is why he’s being kept at HQ. 

Until more titans appear and he is needed… but he wants to survey the outside world with the rest of his friends who have been sent to do so currently. And he doesn’t want to hold Corporal Levi back; who still has responsibility over him. It is the Corporal’s duty to watch him and make sure if accidents happen, that he is subdued. He still holds Eren’s life, and is an assurance to the public- some of which have voiced Eren should be let out to the outside world, and should stay there as the damn titan he is.

Commander Erwin is still figuring it all out with the others. Eren awaits his orders as he obeys Levi’s- which is to not leave HQ or his room unless he absolutely needs to.

Eren hates limiting Corporal Levi.

He knows as strongly as he, the Corporal wishes to go outside the walls. Only in his case it’d be again. After so long…

Corporal Levi is usually nearby in HQ, his room is next to Eren’s after all, he’d had to argue for Eren to have not only a room but his own room. Eren had been touched by that, not only did the Corporal trust in him to that extent, he wanted to at the very least provide him this much freedom. It was how it’d come to be agreed that so long as Levi was not far from him Eren could have his own room.

He’s glad for the privacy.

He looks at the lock of the hope chest, an unusual thing, but his mother had been quiet and secretive of many things just as his father had been.

They’d deemed the hope chest hadn’t originally been in the basement so it wasn’t subject to the Survey Corp’s investigation. It was however one of the only remaining articles of Eren’s house that hadn’t been destroyed in the titan attack, so they’d given it to him.

He remembers seeing it before, at the foot of his parent’s bed. What had been in it long taken out, the linen and china they had used in the kitchen. Instead his mother had stored other items in there after marrying his father, things that were precious to her.

Eren lifts up the lid, that heart shaped lock is broken. He remembers like his father had carried a key to the basement his mother had carried a key to her hope chest.

An old smell assaults him, it is his home.

He sits back and inhales it, wondering how much longer he will have it before it dissipates in this new and unfamiliar room of his. Perhaps now that he has some of his mother’s old things he will finally make this room his own, as Corporal Levi had intended him to.

He looks down into the hope chest, and carefully, sorts through it. He has to hold himself back from flinging everything out of the chest, looking for what, he’s not sure- but wanting to see everything at once altogether. He controls himself that much, a testament to the Corporal’s training and his own coming of age. 

Eren first sets out the old baby blanket of his, his mother had kept, a small lion and rose stitched by her own hand in the corner, he lays out a wolf plush very worn he’d once slept with, an old knit hat and sock pair she’d also made for him- red and red- along with a story book much like one another dark haired girl had read to their now Queen- there’s a string velvet bag of some of his baby teeth but there’s also a bag tied in a similar fashion and just as tight- of jewels, gems, a diamond bracelet and the wedding band his mother only wore when his father came home and took her out for the night- very rare was this occasion- the rest of the items aren’t his, but his mother’s truly. A worn knife of steel and gold in a jewel studded sheath. Gifts and mementos from his father, a pair of lacey gloves with a note he can’t entirely read but the messy script is his father’s for sure, a well used quill, ribbons for her hair. There’s a small bottle of almost gone perfume. Some winter clothes, lined with fur are in here, a couple more books, one full of writing he doesn’t know, and a diary his mother had made from her days of assisting his father in the field. It’s full of medical notes but also snippets of what happened that day, whenever it’d been since all the entries are undated. There’s flowers or herbs pressed between some of the pages. There’s another book entirely of pressed flowers, there’s some dried flowers tied and wrapped in the chest too.

They’re flowers from his mother’s wedding day.

The only photo she has of herself and his father is their wedding picture. The rest of the photos are of him as a baby or toddler, those are few in number. He remembers his father mentioning his mother didn’t like photographs very much, she liked hand drawn pictures better.

When he comes across his mother’s wedding picture he freezes, one edge of it carefully pinched between his fingers as he looks at it. His father had told him many times, in those brief moments, he’d forgotten- been made to forget them- of how much he took after his mother.

She looks really young in the picture, his father only looking slightly younger than he did from what Eren knew.

She’s sitting in a chair, as his father stands aside her, an ambivalent smile on his lips. The backdrop is to a room he’s never seen before. There’s a fireplace and an unfamiliar wardrobe.

Her expression was usually stern, but it is a little less so in the picture. She must be happy Eren thinks. Her veil has those saved flowers upon it as a crown, and her dress is white silk and lace embroidered with the flowers from her hope chest by coloured thread and gold. 

His father actually looks a little underdressed next to her, he’s wearing a black suit much like the style he usually adorns for going out. They’re both wearing the gold wedding bands; his mother is wearing her wedding band over those gloves his father had given her, the diamond bracelet around her right wrist as well. And as tradition in Wall Maria, the flower his mother holds about her lap is a single sunflower- not a bouquet of roses like in the other walls. Or perhaps because of her veil…

That veil and dress, along with the undergarments, and shoes you can barely see the tips of in the photo are in the hope chest as well, wrapped and folded away neatly beneath a sheer fabric that’s painted like the starry night sky. Eren takes out each article of clothing of his mother’s wedding attire carefully, laying it down upon his bed. The bracelet and gloves, as well as the wedding band too. For a moment he ponders, when his mother had died, she’d not been wearing it- had his father when he had died, had he been wearing his?

Eren puts the shoes aside last, before he puts everything else back as orderly as he’s capable, except the bottle of perfume, which he puts on his nightstand.

He closes the lid to the hope chest. His mother had probably also locked it to prevent him from getting into it, as he’d often wondered what was in there. They’d also played hide and seek around the house quite often and he’d hid near everywhere except the chest. She locked it to protect him too.

Eren rises to draw back the curtains.

He’d woken up late today, and took a bath to wash away the sweat of oversleep. Corporal Levi often did not visit him for days at a time, having to run errands or answer commands, despite his duty to watch him, but every now and then he’d break bread with Eren, bring him flowers, or take him out shopping, though he loathed to do it as there were people who didn’t want a “titan” in their midst.

Surely because of the arrival of the hope chest, Corporal Levi- much more considerate than he is given credit for- is giving Eren his space.

For the days Levi did intend to watch over Eren like the old days not so old- he’d always wake him as he usually had when Eren had stayed in the dungeons.

Eren is glad HQ is quiet today, and Corporal Levi not expecting of him, though he’d still taken a bath… more out of habit than just in case.

It’s past midday and soon will be evening, he probably should wait until night but he doesn’t want the candle light to show he’s up and active to whoever might be passing by outside and look up to the highest story of this building (it’d been some executed, miserly and corrupt noble’s)… more like he was worried the Corporal would be in late- and then be reminded to check up on him. Eren just doesn’t want to cause Levi any more trouble than he already has.

Eren reaches back to peel his shirt off of himself.

He unbuttons his trousers and slides them off, tossing them where he’d tossed the shirt, over a chair at the table a ways from his bed, before the unlit hearth of the fireplace. He glances at the hope chest, placed at the foot of his bed, just like his mother had done- thinking about how much his mother’s eyes are his own. What had his father thought of that?

Before he can entirely remember again, again- Eren peels off the rest of his clothes, even to his socks, all tossed at the feet of the chair (Corporal Levi isn’t here), and he starts to put on his mother’s wedding attire. Starting with the undergarments; the lacy panties, the frilly bloomers that are cut high on the thigh, the stockings and garter, the slim silky underdress he’s worried won’t fit, but his mother had been flatter chested than he thought in her youth- the dress should fit then. Before slipping into it and all its skirts he pops off the lid of that bottle of perfume, vaguely purple in colour and sprays a little on his wrist, then his neck after he smells his wrist and finds the scent to be pleasant- an undertone of cinnamon and cloves that surprises him and vaguely reminds him of a tea the Corporal sometimes drinks- he’d thought it would be of flowers, the scent- considering his mother’s tastes but this is fine. 

He pulls the dress off the bed and after putting his arms through the sleeves- deems that he will be able to fit truly, it’s only with a little difficulty that he buttons up the back of the dress but he’s rather flexible and putting on the straps of the 3D maneuver gear is no small feat, he won’t lose to a few buttons!

There are actually a lot of buttons, from the lacy collar at the back of the neck all the way down his back to the small of it. When he’s done with it all he thinks he’ll sit, put the shoes on- instead he takes up his mother’s veil, a small thin gold crown is holding up the sheer fabric, clearer than the fabric that’d the clothes had been wrapped in, it’s also not dark in tones but putting it on and over his face he can see the stars etched on the side the bride sees from. It’s very light, the veil and doesn’t fit all the way.

He takes it off almost disappointed before he remembers there had been flowers weaved into the crown from his mother’s photo. Stocking footed, he rushes over to the table where the vase of blue flowers are and decides to use them. He uses a dry towel from the bathroom and some hair cutting scissors to dry and trim the flowers. He works for an hour or so in his mother’s dress carefully, weaving and tying the flowers about the crown of the veil until it meets his satisfaction. All the days he spent in the flower fields with Mikasa and sometimes Armin, making actual flower crowns has come into use, though Mikasa would scold him for procrastinating on gathering fire wood she always loved to join in and made the most neat and lasting flower crowns.

Work finished, he places the crown on his head, not pulling the veil over his face until after he puts his mother’s shoes on, jumping when he feels metal in one of the shoes of the floral painted pumps- a silver coin of unknown currency in the left one- he leaves it there and hobbles to the mirror. Adjusting the attire this and that. With the veil pushed aside his face and the room’s light blocked by curtains you can’t really tell his hair is short… at certain angles. He almost wishes he had a wig, then he would really look like her.

Otherwise, the resemblance is uncanny, expected, he’d never been as girly looking as Armin and to be honest you could say it was his mother who looked a little boyish- but he’d never really liked it when people who compare their looks to be so close- he is a boy! And all that… but here he is, adorning her dress.

He hobbles back to his bed, getting better at walking in the short heels having to fix something, or remember something- he makes the trip many a time. He places her gloves over his scar bitten hands, adjusts the diamond bracelet he wonders if his father had given her, and then finally the ring. The ring is much bigger than he thought it would be, to fit over the gloves? He throws away the cut flower stalks and leaves. Puts away the towel and scissors. Happily walking around carefully, as his mother might have, stealing glimpses of himself in the mirror as he does all this. He almost folds his clothes as she might have scolded him to do but it’s hard to bend that much in his dress so he leaves them.

His feet are a little sore so he returns to the mirror, wishing he’d saved a few flowers to hold since he’d not a sunflower. It’s when he finally pulls the veil over his face that he registers the footsteps that’d been coming up the stairs and walking along the hall- he hopes they will pass but he hears, uniformed and heavy taps, ones he only recently began to become familiar with having his own room-

It’s always followed by the door opening, because though he has a lock the only one who has a key to it is him and Corporal Levi. And if Corporal Levi wants to enter then…

Eren swirls around, not sure what to do, he takes a few pounding steps, stopping when he feels he’ll trip and not wanting to step on his mother’s dress by accident- if he were more mobile he’d have slammed his whole body against the door and hopefully come up with an excuse as to why Levi can’t come in right now before of course Levi would overpower him and force the door open- he could yell the excuse right now- the excuse he doesn’t know but nothing is coming to mind but the truth.

Which is precisely why Eren doesn’t want Levi to enter his room.

The door opens as he’s wracking his brain in order to come up with a way for it to stop from happening, he’s about to grab the table by him and fling it when indeed, Corporal Levi steps through into his room, a bouquet of red, blooming roses in hand, his worn and oversized coat of his casual wear looking more shabby than the attire Eren’s father had worn on his own wedding day.

The Corporal still has a hand on the door handle before he completely stills, assessing who it is before him.

Eren does what he can only think to do next in a situation of emergency.

He brings a hand to his mouth and holding it there threateningly-

Says, in a voice usually this loud but too high in panic-

“Please Corporal Levi sir! Do not take another step further or I will turn into a titan!”

Hearing Eren’s voice…

Levi steps into the room and closes the door behind him, locking it. An exasperated sigh leaving his lips as he turns to scowl at Eren.

“And ruin your pretty dress? Don’t be ridiculous, Eren.”

\--

It’s been rather difficult living with Eren.

There are limitations on where Eren can and cannot go, and so Levi has been restrained by these rules as well. Living in the same place, in such close conditions doesn’t help either. It’s frustrating, having to live in such a space, often just the two of them.

To take Eren’s mind off his own captivity Levi would take him out now and then (even though he is highly recognizable with or without a mantle Levi always insists on Eren pulling up the hood, telling Eren to shut up on if it’s really ok or not that he can go with him- if it wasn’t ok he wouldn’t have invited him to begin with, fuck) but the townspeople aren’t any comfort. Despite them, Eren does seem to enjoy shopping with him even though it’d be for mundane things like soap or ingredients for soup. 

Levi wants nothing more than once they are able, to go outside the walls with Eren and stay there.

Then Eren will be away from all these people who look at him, most often with revulsion, contempt, hatred, though his sins do not lie with those mysteriously disappeared titans’. Levi, like many others (and a very distraught Hanji) wants to know the truth. Eren too, but they cannot find that truth if they’re cooped up here.

Because of their eyes he hates bringing Eren out, but having Eren stay locked up in that gloomy building almost by himself (the occasional in and out personnel there throughout the day) was just shitty. So that’s why he was always grabbing at some excuse, some occasion to give Eren flowers, he isn’t sure what the last reason had been. But Eren had looked so damn dejected on returning from his old home that Levi couldn’t help but pick him up something. Maybe he should have gone with something more colourful, brighter, than the blue flowers he’d picked out though the sky had been the same shade that day.

He’d had that in mind too, some good intentions crap, when he’d headed out this late morning originally he’d gone out to send out some post, check up on a few orders he himself had made, have a quick meal, and once time got the better of him- a few drinks to forget about how happy those flowers typically made Eren. How Eren, usually stern or morose looking when he isn’t uncomfortably tense and nervous (since Levi is there) would briefly smile when he accepts them. The gentle gestures he’d take to admire those flowers, bringing them close to his face to sniff at them, glancingly he might touch at a few petals to feel how soft the flowers be like. It didn’t help Levi at all from imagining doing the same, only his touch wouldn’t skim over flowers but Eren’s face, to see how soft his skin might be there. The drinks hadn’t helped either. He isn’t one to get drunk so easily on so few drinks but he wasn’t exactly entirely sober when he’d purchased this almost obnoxious bouquet of roses.

He’d spent the entire walk home trying not to envision Eren’s delight on receiving them, each step heavier and stiffer on the stairs as he’d pounded up them, trying to take it slow. He’d not even given Eren the typical amount of time to reply to his knocking before he is already unlocking the door.

And then-

They’re sitting on Eren’s bed now. Eren had accepted the flowers, noting Levi’s brief glance to the empty vase on the table and his very not brief glances, but outright staring at him in this attire. His face almost as red as the bouquet he’s trying to hide his face behind.

“Care to explain to me what the situation is?” is what Levi is asking, his legs are crossed, a wrist rests on one knee while a hand is placed on the bed, pressing to support his weight, between he and Eren. If he moves his hand but a little be might be able to feel Eren’s skirt.

“…situation?” Eren echoes back, he’s brought his face a little out of the flowers; he’s touching at them as Levi knew he would.

Levi’s frown deepens, annoyed and he can almost see the sweat on the back of Eren’s neck (or would have if it wasn’t covered by the dress, the dress covers a damnable lot- he can basically only see Eren’s face with how it’s designed-) 

“I mean, who are you waiting for?”

Eren looks confused, there’s no one else he answers to.

He mulls over it, but not enough.

“I was waiting for you sir.”

Levi is about to gape at him, when Eren holds up the flowers.

“Thank you so very much sir! These are beautiful!”

He gets up from the bed to put them in the vase, not without going into the bathroom to replace the water. When the roses are arranged to his liking on his table he rejoins Levi on the bed, still careful about the dress. Levi had watched him all the while, Eren’s words of before still sinking into his brain, he knows he’d not meant it like that but-

“You see,” Eren starts and Levi’s gaze snaps to attention, directed to Eren’s mouth. Eren’s not looking at Levi but has shyly looked away. Levi suddenly feels very much the amount of alcohol he drank, to misconstrue what’s been going on. Eren’s hands are folded in his lap, Levi resents how even those are covered.

“Corporal Levi I was wondering… if you could help me?”

“Yeah, what is it Eren.”

Eren’s head ducks down forward a little. He’d not been expecting _that_ swift of an answer even before he’s given the details.

“W-well you see, it wasn’t too hard putting the dress on by myself, but taking it off feels it’ll be a task. I was wondering if you could assist me with taking off the dress? I only need you to undo the buttons in the back. Is that alright sir?”

Eren has flipped the veil over his face, and turns his back to Levi to show the many many, fuck that is a lot of buttons, round buttons that hold the dress closed.

Levi takes more time to reply, having to swallow some spit that’s collected in his mouth.

“It’s fine.”

He feels Eren tense up as he starts at the top button, the buttons are made of bone, bleached and polished, of what animal, Levi isn’t sure.

Eren mumbles something about being careful and Levi makes an attempt, he’s taking much longer than he’d usually take to undo buttons not because he’s being especially careful but every time his knuckles brush against Eren’s back as he undoes a button he can feel him trembling (oh and probably those drinks had something to do with it). When Levi is halfway done he notices. Much to his annoyance that Eren is wearing a dress _underneath this dress_ , he can see the nape of his neck now, and a bit of his back but the shoulder blades are covered as is his shoulders in this long sleeved dress. Long skirt dress, long everything dress. Levi is a little harsher on undoing the last few buttons and he feels Eren trying to turn a little to look back and see what he’s doing, too afraid to say anything else when he sees Levi’s resumed worse than usual scowl.

When he’s done-

“Is everything alright? I’m sorry to make you do- _w-w-what are you doing sir?_ ”

With the back of the dress opened to reveal another dress.

Levi has dipped his hands inside the outer dress, starting by the hips and quite forcefully, has lifted up that under dress that’d so offended him, his hands under it as he hitches it to Eren’s waist, the backs of his fingers brushing over Eren’s ribcages as he does so. He didn’t really think past that, and now looks angrily at what’s under this other dress.

“Helping you out of the dress, ain’t that what you wanted? Or did you change your mind? Eren.”

Eren’s mouth moves, but no words come out- belated is his reply- “Excuse me for saying Corporal but I… I did not ask you to help me to this extent-”

He jumps again, as Levi moves the under dress further up so he can see the small of Eren’s back. The pretense is gone when he lets the under dress fall over his hands as he gropes up and down that bit of Eren’s body that is accessible to him.

“Are you really sure you don’t need any more help Eren? Weren’t you waiting for me to take this dress off you? It’d be shitty to do a halfassed job. Or is that what you think of me?”

Eren leans back into his hands, in an attempt to look back at Levi.

“No! It was not my intention to infer such a thing sir!”

Levi has scooted a bit closer to Eren now, he feels Eren freeze completely beneath his hands and then his lips as he presses them to the back of Eren’s neck. Kissing at it, Eren only twisting around, forcing him to take his hands from him too as he moves to face him- once he feels Levi bite at his neck- Eren is holding a hand there, distraught.

“Please do not do that! It is not necessary to take such an action in order to remove the rest of the dress!”

“Oh? Is that what you think Eren? But ain’t this a wedding dress?”

Eren starts, stops.

“What do you mean sir?”

With Eren facing him now, Levi lifts up the veil but instead of holding it back, over those flowers he’d given Eren, that Eren had so carefully incorporated into the crown of the veil- he lifts it just enough to move under it, and both beneath the veil, his face so close to Eren’s he can see the finer details of his subordinate’s- his bride’s long eyelashes- his breath against Eren’s mouth-

“There’s only one way to really take a wedding dress off, you damn brat.”

His hands are at Eren’s waist now, holding him as if Eren could get away in such a get up.

He sees Eren’s nose scrunch a little as he blinks, rapidly against their sudden resumed proximity, Levi can feel the heat off Eren’s face as he doesn’t pull back but-

“Have you been drinking sir?”

“Ah, a few.”

“A few sir?”

“Yeah, like five… eight… seventeen drinks probably.”

“Sevente-“

Eren’s distress is cut off as Levi kisses him, then kisses him again biting, sucking at his lower lip until Eren’s lips part and he puts his tongue inside Eren’s mouth. Eren is stiff at first but then eventually sighs against him, meeting his tongue with his own as he brings his hands to Levi’s shoulders and grips them. Levi feels those fingers slip into his hair, bites at Eren’s lip again when he feels those gloved fingers caress through and up past the undercut, he wants Eren to take them off, the gloves, take everything off, the dress, but that is his duty to see through isn’t it?

He pushes Eren back against the mattress, the veil falling back, hitches his legs over onto the bed as well as he leans atop him, he reaches back and slips off the shoe that remains on Eren’s foot, the other had clamored to the floor when he’d moved Eren’s legs. A metallic chime echoing the wooden _thunk_ as something silver had fallen out of the shoe. Levi let’s the other shoe fall to the floor as he reaches to peel off Eren’s garter, sliding it down his long leg, crushing it in his hand as he also uses both hands to pull at each stocking, on each leg. All these articles end up on the floor along with Eren’s undergarments, at this point he’d felt those gloved fingers reach to grab at his wrists, heard from Eren on something about how Eren could do it himself but Levi isn’t relenting to that and the moment the panties come off Eren has shut his legs, drawing them up to himself so Levi once again can’t see anything despite the effort he’d made to strip Eren.

Eren’s also trying to draw his skirts up around himself to cover up, still going on about how he doesn’t think this is necessary, and that the Corporal doesn’t have to do this for him. Levi is swearing at him now as he takes both of Eren’s wrists and pulls them from his death grip on the skirts of the dress he’d been so careful about, he touches at the tops of Eren’s knocked knees before wedging his hands around them to grip and part his thighs, almost groaning at how soft the skin is there. Eren’s legs slide forward, about his ribcage as Levi looks down at the painful erection Eren is sporting now, surrounded by silk and lace, it strains against all the layers of the dress as Levi pushes the skirts back to see it better. 

He reaches to undo the buckle of his belt and feels Eren’s shaking hands join his, helping him semi undress as well, he pinches at the glove on Eren’s left hand and peels it off, directing that hand in his to grip both of their cocks together and touch, touch everything. It feels so good to have Eren’s touch on him at last, he wants to remove the other glove, but Eren has grabbed at his coat sleeve and is clenching it as he bites at the lower lip Levi had also been biting only moments before, his eyes are clenched shut, as he tilts his head back and parts his lips, moaning. His legs opening a little wider the harder Levi makes them pump their cocks against each other.

“Eren.” 

Eren tries to open his eyes, the lashes of them moist and dark.

He manages and looks over to Levi, obediently listening.

But Levi doesn’t say anything more, he’d merely wanted Eren to look at him.

Levi bends over to kiss Eren’s mouth, heart jumping up to his throat as Eren opens his mouth to his, pushing his tongue inside Corporal’s mouth first, his gentle touch of before no longer so, Levi can feel the tips of his fingers rubbing at both the tips of their cocks, slick with precum.

Levi draws back, looking at Eren’s, red and wet mouth. He presses his face to the side of Eren’s neck and inhales heavily, there’s some perfume Eren had used that reminds him of a certain blend of black tea he’d occasionally drink, when he has the funds. He licks at the sweat there, licking lower to Eren’s chest as he pulls down the front of the dress, Eren’s griping right hand moves to press over his shoulder and onto his back as his hips lift up, looking as if he’ll come soon, Levi doesn’t mind.

Eren looks down to where their cocks are touching, now only in his hand as Levi moves to part his legs wider, then grope at his ass, parting that as well to look at his asshole, Levi supposes he should use something… he sees the bottle of perfume on the nightstand and discovers it’s what Eren is wearing, he uncaps it to moisten some of his fingers with it before putting it back and before pressing those fingers inside Eren who is far too tight to have ever done this before.

When he pushes his fingers inside Eren he feels him stop pumping their cocks, instead he is clutching the both of them against his belly as he tries to pull away from Levi’s fingers, he’s looking at Levi again.

“What are you doing?” Eren asks, brow furrowed not in anger for once but confusion and concern.

There’s a sheen of moisture right above his nipples where Levi had licked him, mixed with perfume and sweat.

He looks over it and the bunched up, half taken off wedding dress, his hand, Levi’s stomach to his wrist where his hand is, scissoring his fingers inside Eren.

“I’ve got to prepare you, especially if you’ve never done this before. Or would you rather I don’t? It’s your choice Eren.”

Eren turns away, thinking, how the veil had remained atop his head when he’d been writhing before-

“It’s fine sir. I think we should do this as quickly as possible. I don’t wish to take up any more of your time.”

“Is that so?”

Levi pulls his fingers out from Eren, who flinches painfully, looking in deepened confusion when Levi pushes his hand away and takes his own cock in hand, guiding it to Eren’s asshole, Eren doesn’t realise it’s not over until Levi starts to enter him, slowly, not even halfway inside Eren tenses in panic.

“Hold- hold on Corporal Levi w-what are you doing?!”

Levi is looking down at him.

“What are you freaking out for? I know this is probably your first time, but this must be done. A bride has to be deflowered for the dress to come off.”

“ARE YOU really sure that is the case sir?! To my understanding the dress needs to be _taken off first_ , besides who said I was any bride? Just because-”

“You’re wearing the dress ain’t you? What are you going on about you dumbass, didn’t you tell me you were waiting for me to come take it off, I’m taking it off ain’t I?”

“Yes! That may be the case but you are being very slow about it sir!”

Eren’s cry is loud as Levi slams the rest of his cock inside him, gripping at his hips, the dress, whatever is in reach to quickly and harshly pound into Eren. He’d wanted to avoid this since Eren had wanted him to be careful about the dress and he had wanted to be careful about Eren but that alcohol is finally catching up to him, as is how tight Eren is, having never been touched. He’s hot and sucking Levi right up inside him, it’s difficult to pull out at all and Levi doesn’t mind, he still manages to pull back. He doesn’t bother to pull almost all the way out to go back in until Eren’s hands are in his hair again and he finally decides to pull that other glove from his hand. He moves to take it off but that diamond bracelet is baring his way. Levi kisses at Eren’s wrist, the palm of his hand, groaning, when he feels Eren’s fingers of his other hand clench against the back of his neck. It’s only the bracelet in his way until he sees the golden band around Eren’s finger. He wants to wrench it off, he wants to rip and tear the rest of Eren’s clothes off but Eren stops him when he feels Levi’s grip about his hips move entirely up into the skirts, hears something tear. The silk and lace stained with sweat and cum as Eren’s spills himself over the dress and his belly, blood also stains the dress as Levi fucks Eren harder, he’d been holding back since Eren had taken him in and didn’t seem able to let him out easily, but seeing that ring on Eren’s finger- Eren whom he at times left alone in HQ-

“Who gave you this ring Eren? Who are you really waiting for dressed like this? Who are they?”

Levi has grabbed at his wrist now, the diamond bracelet hard like steel between them both.

“Do you like diamonds? Like this? I will get you however many you want- just, whoever this bastard is, take off his ring-”

Eren can barely talk now, with how roughly Levi is fucking him, going inside him deeper on every thrust, he clamps his legs over Levi’s hips, trying to make him stay inside him longer, make him fuller. What is Levi talking about? He cups the back of Levi’s head with his free hand and tries to rise. To get a little closer to Levi, so he may hear better.

“Y-you have to be careful with this dress Corporal, it was my mother’s, the diamonds are my mother’s, the ring is my mother’s-”

The hope chest Hanji and the others had carried in for Eren after his visit to his old home. That is the origin of these clothes- he should have made that connection sooner, but the damn alcohol- how pretty Eren looks- distracted him-

It’d slowed his wits down, some dexterity too but that was about it, when he cums inside Eren he isn’t sure it’ll all fit, mixed with the blood, it wets some of his dick when he does pull it out. He’s so relieved that no one had given Eren that ring, but he still wants Eren to take it off.

He forgets everything entirely when Eren reaches up to kiss him, messily, but leisurely. Now that both of them have cummed.

Eren leans back against the mattress, the veil finally tossed completely from his dark hair, he skims his fingers over the top of the outer dress, the inner one long stretched and ripped, his shoulders bare, blood and cum are dripping down Levi’s spent cock on his thighs and stomach as Levi hovers over him, Eren’s exhausted face he’d feel a little worse about if Eren wasn’t smiling, hesitantly. At him.

“Do you think you can get me out of this dress finally, Corporal Levi?”

\--

After taking everything off Eren, Levi runs a bath for them.

Clean and warm, Eren is falling asleep in the bath they share, half asleep as Levi dries his hair, falling further into sleep on the chair Levi had to move him on as he folds Eren’s clothes. Levi changes the blankets they’d fucked atop of on Eren’s bed. He’d been contemplating on just carrying Eren to his own room but he wants to sleep in _Eren’s_ bed tonight and the very slim chance on running into someone who might have overheard them at this hour was not something he wants to deal with (more he doesn’t want anyone to see Eren, covered in every mark imaginable by his mouth).

Levi tucks them both in, finding it hard to leave Eren in the morning considering how tightly he’s wrapped himself around him while sleeping, a leg thrown over Levi’s hip and his shirt ridden up, it is indeed very difficult to leave Eren in many senses but Levi must.

He has another duty to fulfill having taken Eren’s dress off.

When Eren wakes it’s later noon and Levi is not there. He’s still blinking sleep from his eyes when he hears the lock of his door click undone, the Corporal walking in with a giant bundle in his arms.

Eren becomes awake immediately on seeing what it is-

“My mother’s dress!”

Levi shows it to him, it’s fully cleaned, not a stain on it from the day before, whatever tears that’d been, sewn up as if they’d not been there to begin with, it looks even better than it did when Eren had brought it out from the hope chest. Corporal Levi hangs it up in Eren’s closet. The shoes are polished too, at the foot of his bed, the veil still done up in the same flowers on the table by his folded clothes, a new bottle of perfume on the nightstand replacing the old, along with the gloves, the diamond bracelet but-

Eren turns sharply to Levi.

“My mother’s ring?”

“How do you think the dress was repaired?”

Eren is about to bite into his hand.

“A joke.”

Levi had repaired and cleaned the dress himself.

He sits atop the bed and takes Eren’s hand and slips that ring, now fitting without the glove, over Eren’s finger.

However, he had gone out into town to get that resizing done. Maybe he’d paid for the expense, maybe he had held an extremely unwilling goldsmith at swordpoint.

Eren looks down on it, more pleased than Levi has ever seen, even before flowers.

Which might be a shame, considering after Eren gets dressed, both intending to go out into town, Levi has practically bought every flower in town already for Eren, who sees them all once he opens his bedroom door. He walks a little past the doorframe to see them all lining up through the halls of HQ, causing a fair amount of panic on the trying to work personnel. You’d think flowers are titans by the commotion.

“Eren.”

Levi has not merely said his name to have his eyes upon him.

“Will you marry me?”

Eren looks at Levi.

Confused again.

“Huh? Aren’t we already married Corporal?” 

Levi takes Eren by the hand, leads him into his room and shuts the door.

**Author's Note:**

> extra
> 
> something old - levi  
> something new - eren  
> something borrowed - eren's mother's (carla's) dress  
> something blue - the flowers in the veil  
> and a sixpence in your shoe - probably wasnt what that was but it was silver
> 
> sorry corporal i make shitty jokes too


End file.
